Virginia "Carole" (Kinder) Watkins

The family of Virginia "Carole" Kinder is sad to announce her death on November 6, 2025, age 90.

Carole was born on a cold day, February 8, 1935 at Hale Willard Hospital, Anna, Illinois.

Carole's parents were Maude Rhodes and Virgil Leland Kinder who were lifelong residents of Union County. They lived for almost 60 years on a farm south of Jonesboro on Route 146.

Carole was baptized in the Jonesboro Methodist Church; she was a Charter member in the Methodist Church of Schaumburg, Illinois and a member of Valencia Methodist Church in Placentia, CA.

For her first seven school years, Carole walked to Tripp Elementary School before transferring to Anna Junior High in 1948-49. If not for transferring, Carole would have been the only student in her 8th grade class at Tripp.

She attended Anna-Jonesboro Community High School graduating in the Class of 1953.  Carole's father was employed in the demolition of the Hale-Willard hospital and construction of the gymnasium where her class graduated.  During Carole's schooling in Anna, she spent many hours at Stinson Memorial Public Library. This experience instilled a deep connection with learning and a life-long interest in genealogy.

Carole earned a scholarship to Mac Murray College for Women in Jacksonville, Illinois, where she attended from 1953 to 1955. She then attended Southern Illinois University - (SIU), Carbondale graduating with a degree in Merchandising.

Carole was a sales associate at Marshall Field's & Company, Chicago working in the Millinery Section and Import Bazaar where she was trained to decorate Marshall Field's famous holiday windows.

In 1958 Carole married Robert Cowley and they lived in Chicago and Schaumburg where they raised their three children, Scott, Robin and Ramona. Carole was working for Uarco Business Forms in Barrington when in 1978, the family relocated to Southern California. Both, she and her husband each were fortunate to transfer to positions with their respective companies. She was also employed for fourteen years with the Hanes Converting Co. in the Los Angeles area. She then retired and began travelling the world. During that time she married Richard Watkins.

Carole belonged to the Mojave Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) of Fullerton, Ca...Her patriot connection is Joseph Rheinhardt Rhoades, her 3rd great-grandfather who served in the Revolutionary War. Carole continued her research of both the Rhoades/Rhodes and Kinder families .Her kinder grandparents lived in Pine Hills area and her Rhodes grandparents on the Trail of Tears Road in Union County.

Carole lost her father, Virgil in 1986 and her mother in 1992, Brother Harold Richard in 1997, sister-in-law Flora in 2003. She also lost her beloved cousins Wilma Kinder Schafer, Kay Smith Michels and Bill Boyd.

Carole leaves her children Scott, Robin, and Ramona Cowley and two granddaughters Kaitlin and Kelci Cowley-Deyoe, all of California. And, local cousin Linda LaFoon.

Memorials may be made to the P.A.S.T. organization of Union County.